Yes the only thing that I would do to make a false bottom would be to get a round piece of stainless steel and drill 1/8 or smaller holes all over it. You could make a neat pattern too. In the long run it might be worth it to make a 10 gallon mash tun just because you will make a kick ass brew and you would want to make a bigger batch of it. I'm just thinking in the long run.
But if you make this one super nice and feel In a year you want to make a bigger I'm sure you could sell it.
Good luck.

The best part about this setup is that the fittings should be interchangeable with the 5 or 10 gallon Rubbermaids. Whenever I feel like upgrading, all I have to do is pull it apart and it should all fit right into a new cooler. Although, it's only about a $15 system, so I might just keep the small tun and have a separate large tun... but then again, I could use the second valve setup to put together a hot liquor tank. Oh, the possibilities!

Rawkstar320: Check out Deathbrewer's Partial Mash BiaB tutorial sticky. That's where I learned the basics of it. I've found that if I order my grains crushed and then, when I get them, throw them into a blender and give them just a little bit of a whizz I will end up with slightly higher efficiency (it's safe because in the bag you don't have to worry about stuck sparges). I figure I usually end up with 65-70% if I mash for an hour and let the bag rest in my separate sparge water for about 10 minutes, but you will find all of this discussed in the aforementioned thread. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips everyone. Using my standard mlt (2 gallon cooler) I get about 70% efficiency. I'm interested in biab because i can do (slightly) larger batches with equipment i already have. ($ saved = happy wife).

Feels like a while since I've had a chance to sit down and post something here. Been keeping fermenters full though, just bottled two single hops ipas using some of the exp hops from farmhouse, have an arrogant bastard inspired beer ready to bottle and put together a smoked porter, rebrew of my braggot iipa, and a batch of skeeterpee light this week.

After a number of delays, I finally brewed my first AG small-batch (1 gallon) yesterday. It's the Pale Ale recipe from the Beer Craft book by Bostwick and Rymill. The book uses the BIAB technique, so that's how I brewed it. Amazingly, everything went smoothly. My only real concern is that there is a lot of trub and the wort looks very murky! Hopefully it will clear up as things progress. But the fermentation took off within 12 hours and it's bubbling right along now.

I just wanted to say thanks to all the contributors to this thread. I used a number of the tips and suggestions mentioned here and they definitely helped me get through the session. For example, instead of doing the entire mash on the stove, after the mash reached the target temperature I put my stock pot in the oven, on its lowest setting, to keep the temperature constant for the entire 60 minutes. That worked great! I also used a paint strainer bag. And, as many posts suggested, I squeezed the bag -- using a stainless-steel dog-food dish upside down in my Walmart plastic strainer -- to wring out the wort after mashing. It was a real help to have so many little tricks available.

Thanks again to everyone for all the expert info and assistance. Hopefully, I can return the favor as I become more experienced at AG brewing and come up with some ideas of my own that I can share.

Hi everything! I've been following this thread for a couple of months and figured it was about time to say Hi... I used to help a buddy of mine brew 5 gallons 5-6 years ago, well more like help drink'em... For xmas my wife got a me Brewmaster Select Mr.Beer kit. Well lets just say this sparked my interest in brewing beer again..Not being a fan of MrBeer, I figured I would give it try.. MrBeer has changed a lot. I couldn't believe all the different recipes they have. Since the kit that my wife got me came with 4 HME, I figured I would change them up a little..... I've already killed 2 different brews and have 2 others lagering for 2 months...

But this wasn't enough... I came across BBS and fell in love with 1 gallon all-grain... When I was brewing with my buddy, we only did extract with specially grains. There is something about making a beer from grain to finish product. Sweetness :-)

I've learn a lot from this thread... I started with 1 gallon jugs but I have a couple of 2 gallon buckets on the way (I've been bugging Shoprite bakery for a few but timing hasn't been good). I would prefer all glass but at the same time I feel I'm losing a bottle to blow off and some bitterness because of all the krausen sticking to the neck... I brewed AHS Itsy Bitsy IPA and there must have been an inch of krausen/hop particles in the neck when I bottled last week.

I've been using my wife's 8 qt pot but I'm going to grab one of those cheap SS pots from wally world along with a handheld foodsaver (time to save some dry yeast and seal up hops). Down the road, I'm going to purchase a corona mill so I can stock up on grains since my closest LHBS is about 30-45 minutes away. Until then, I'll be purchasing kits from AHS, NB, BBS.. I'm thinking of trying Bewmasters Warehouse so I can make the wife BBS Coffee and Donut Stout again... She loved it! May have to upscale to 2.25/2.5 and use the MrBeer fermenter. We'll see....

Very true,there is something extremely rewarding about making a beer from all grain to bottle! I've brewed 2 kits from BBS (everyday IPA,and now smoked wheat),last week I made my first SMASH,let's see how it all turns out.Sure as hell had fun doing it all

Hi everything! I've been following this thread for a couple of months and figured it was about time to say Hi... I used to help a buddy of mine brew 5 gallons 5-6 years ago, well more like help drink'em... For xmas my wife got a me Brewmaster Select Mr.Beer kit. Well lets just say this sparked my interest in brewing beer again..Not being a fan of MrBeer, I figured I would give it try.. MrBeer has changed a lot. I couldn't believe all the different recipes they have. Since the kit that my wife got me came with 4 HME, I figured I would change them up a little..... I've already killed 2 different brews and have 2 others lagering for 2 months...

But this wasn't enough... I came across BBS and fell in love with 1 gallon all-grain... When I was brewing with my buddy, we only did extract with specially grains. There is something about making a beer from grain to finish product. Sweetness :-)

I've learn a lot from this thread... I started with 1 gallon jugs but I have a couple of 2 gallon buckets on the way (I've been bugging Shoprite bakery for a few but timing hasn't been good). I would prefer all glass but at the same time I feel I'm losing a bottle to blow off and some bitterness because of all the krausen sticking to the neck... I brewed AHS Itsy Bitsy IPA and there must have been an inch of krausen/hop particles in the neck when I bottled last week.

I've been using my wife's 8 qt pot but I'm going to grab one of those cheap SS pots from wally world along with a handheld foodsaver (time to save some dry yeast and seal up hops). Down the road, I'm going to purchase a corona mill so I can stock up on grains since my closest LHBS is about 30-45 minutes away. Until then, I'll be purchasing kits from AHS, NB, BBS.. I'm thinking of trying Bewmasters Warehouse so I can make the wife BBS Coffee and Donut Stout again... She loved it! May have to upscale to 2.25/2.5 and use the MrBeer fermenter. We'll see....

Ok, i'll shut up now... Happy Brewing everyone

I use Brewmasters Warehouse. It is so convenient that you can build your own recipes and buy grain in such small amounts. Buy BBS recipe book or scale some recipes down and buy your own grains instead of buying the kit. It will save you a lot of money. About 9 bucks including hops and yeast instead of BBS 15 dollar kits.

Very true,there is something extremely rewarding about making a beer from all grain to bottle! I've brewed 2 kits from BBS (everyday IPA,and now smoked wheat),last week I made my first SMASH,let's see how it all turns out.Sure as hell had fun doing it all

Brewed 2 gals last night and split into 2, 1 gal jugs, 1 w/ s-05, 1 w/ Windsor as an experiment. About half a pack each. Tonight the 05 is fermenting nicely at around 70F while the Windsor is the craziest fermentation I've ever seen and is at 78F sitting right next to the 05. I've seen some crazy fermentations with my 1 gal batches before but never such extreme activity and spike in temp. First experience with Windsor. Any thoughts or advice?